bend attached to the chapel of the Holy Three Kings[1] in the said cathedral whenever the holder of it should die. In the meantime he was to enjoy the income of the Crown estate of Nordfjord in Norway, with all rent and duty derived from it.[2] He had not to wait very long for the prebend, as Henrik Holk, who had held it since the Reformation, died in 1579, on the 5th June of which year the canonry was conferred on Tycho. In the patent all the temporalities of the above-mentioned chapel were granted to Tycho during pleasure, including the canon's residence, farms, and other property belonging thereto, on the condition that hymns were daily to be sung in the chapel to the praise of God, and that for this purpose two poor schoolboys were to be kept in food and clothes in order to assist the vicars-choral in the daily service. Furthermore, he was to maintain two poor students at the University of Copenhagen, and to see that these, as well as the two choir-boys, were diligent, and fit to devote themselves to learned pursuits. The chapel and residence were to be kept in proper repair, and the tenants to be dealt with according to law and justice, and not to be troubled by any new tax or other impost.[3]
About a month after the prebend had been granted to Tycho, he was ordered, in accordance with the rules of the chapter, to allow the widow of his predecessor and the University of Copenhagen to enjoy annum gratiæ of the rents and other income of the prebend. With characteristic coolness the astronomer seems to have turned a deaf ear to this injunction, and he even went so far as to forbid the tenants to pay anything to the widow. On the 3rd December 1579 the king therefore found it necessary to send
- ↑ Anglice, the Three Wise Men of the East. The chapel is an excrescence on the south side of the cathedral, built in 1464. Among other royal tombs, that of Tycho's patron, Frederick II., is in this chapel.
- ↑ Royal letter, printed in Danske Magazin, ii. p. 203 (Weistritz, ii. p. 92.)
- ↑ Ibid., p. 204 (Weistritz, ii. p. 94).
